GRAND RAPIDS, MI – City voters Nov. 6 will consider a local proposal that would decriminalize marijuana, an idea that brings angst to local law enforcement who contend the move, if approved, will be tricky to police, while proponents say voting for the initiative is a common sense way to save money and stop young people from compiling criminal records.

DecriminalizeGR, the group supporting the city proposal, collected more than 10,000 signatures to put the city charter amendment on the ballot. If it passes, possession and use of marijuana would be changed from a misdemeanor crime to a civil infraction, like a parking ticket, with fines ranging from $25 to $100.

And here are five more things to consider about Proposal 2 when going to the polls:

Financial impact
DecriminalizeGR estimates that it would cut $1.4 million in city costs and $1.1 million in Kent County jail costs to stop prosecuting marijuana offenses as misdemeanor crimes. These figures are drawn from a mix of city and federal data explained here.

Police Chief Kevin Belk balks at those numbers, saying he does not expect to get a 7-figure improvement to his department’s budget if voters approve Proposal 2. He said 60 percent of marijuana violations in Grand Rapids are discovered while cops are responding to other crimes so, in most cases, not enforcing marijuana use as a misdemeanor crime won’t free up police to work on other, more serious crimes as proposal proponents suggest.

The Grand Rapids proposal is based on a 38-year-old ordinance in Ann Arbor, where Democratic Mayor John Hieftje claims decriminalization frees up police who “have better things to do” than crack down on marijuana.

“They’re not wasting any time doing that so it has an impact on our bottom line,” he said. “That shouldn’t be overlooked. They’re not worried about that student with a couple joints in their pocket."

Public health impact
DecriminalizeGR claims the effects of marijuana use are no worse than those of alcohol or cigarettes, which are legal. But “that’s pretty self-damning if you’re saying ‘Boy, it’s no more toxic that alcohol or nicotine,’ which are the two biggest killers of all the substances in the world,” said Jon Weeldreyer, an addictions counselor at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services who wrote a guest column on marijuana for MLive.

Weeldreyer said marijuana differs from other drugs in that it’s fat soluble, not water soluble. So “it comes out of the body so much slower than any other drug, almost 150 times slower than alcohol, for example.” That results in long-term effects like lower IQ, he said.

“If you’re smoking more than twice a week, the level of THC in your system is always going up because it only got half the last dose out before the new dose,” Weeldreyer said. “You smoke a lot of marijuana and it embeds itself in the cell walls so the brain’s not biologically capable of thinking as quickly.”

The future of youth
DecriminalizeGR claims that marijuana offenses are too petty to be charged as misdemeanor crimes, and suggests that people who commit marijuana infractions needlessly have their public records tarnished. Proposal 2 supporters say decriminalization will keep people from getting into big trouble with the law and tainting their higher-education and employment prospects.

Belk disagrees, saying that more lenient marijuana enforcement will lead to increased use and greater substance abuse. City Attorney Catherine Mish said Grand Rapids policymakers could tell police to ignore marijuana infractions if Proposal 2 passes. Four out of seven city commissioners have endorsed decriminalization.

Hieftje said “no one goes looking for (marijuana) violations” in Ann Arbor.

“I’ve never seen that there’s more marijuana use in Ann Arbor, but what you don’t have is teenagers with misdemeanors on their record," he said.

Effect on law enforcement

Kent County Prosecutor Bill Forsyth thinks Proposal 2 is too broad because it does not include age restrictions or limits on the amount of marijuana that can be possessed without criminal penalty, nor does it distinguish between possession on public or private property. Though the Grand Rapids proposal does not decriminalize the sale of marijuana, “that’s going to be a discretionary call on somebody’s part” to determine what amount of marijuana constitutes an intent to sell, he said.

A decriminalization proposal in Flint calls for a civil infraction for those 18 and over and possessing less than an ounce of marijuana on private property.

“If they wanted to do what the city of Flint is doing I doubt everybody would get worked up over that,” Forsyth said. “They’re trying to make this extremely difficult for law enforcement.”

Furthermore, Forsyth said the proposal would hinder police by prohibiting them from contacting agencies responsible for enforcing state and federal law. Mish, the city attorney, said the “Grand Rapids Police Department is very concerned about its normal records release process.” The proposal entails many unanswered questions, she said.

“It says that no Grand Rapids police officer shall complain about possession of marijuana,” Mish said. “In theory, this could be construed to mean three kilos of marijuana. Does this protect large-scale drug dealers? How does quantity matter? The GRPD has dozens of questions about this. I can’t at this time offer definitive answers to all of that.”

Decriminalization advocates say the ordinance is tried and tested in Ann Arbor.

Effect on Grand Rapids culture
DecriminalizeGR says Proposal 2 is more about good public policy than marijuana use. The group's attorney, Jack Hoffman, says in the video embedded in this post that decriminalization will not turn Grand Rapids into the “wild West.” Instead, it could help Grand Rapids become Ann Arbor West, he said.

“It kind of helps the vibe a little bit that you know they’re not worried about the fact that somebody might smoke a joint,” Hieftje said. “People just feel more comfortable in Ann Arbor.”